Meyer Feldberg, dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Business, is stepping down effective June 30, 2004.

The announcement marked the end of a tremendously successful 15-year tenure that saw Columbia Business School capitalize on its New York City location and its vast network of business leaders to become one of the preeminent business schools in the world. As the longest-serving dean of a top ten business school, Dean Feldberg presided over the graduation of more than 40 percent of Columbia Business School's living alumni.

The dean's time at the School is characterized by remarkable academic, international and fiscal growth that mirrored the resurgence of New York City. Under Professor Feldberg's leadership, applications to the School tripled, the curriculum was revamped to meet the international business needs of the 21st century, the Executive MBA programs expanded internationally, alumni renewed their connections with the School, and fundraising dramatically increased.

Professor Feldberg, who recently accepted the Sanford C. Bernstein Professorship of Leadership and Ethics, plans to join Columbia Business School's faculty full-time as the head of the School's Sanford Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics.

"I have learned during the past 15 years that the job is never complete, but that leadership mandates change," said Professor Feldberg. "Now is the time to transition to new leadership -- now that we truly are the quintessential Business School in the quintessential business city in the world."

"Over the course of my career in universities, I have known a handful of deans of whom it might be said that they led an extraordinary renaissance of their school. Meyer Feldberg certainly belongs in that pantheon," said President Lee C. Bollinger. "He has inspired a competitive ethos matched perfectly with the academic discipline he oversees and deserves our credit and thanks for his enormous accomplishments."

Raising the Currency of the Columbia MBA

Professor Feldberg's focus on two objectives -- raising the currency of the Columbia MBA degree and enhancing the intellectual capital of the School -- helped build Columbia Business School into one of the leading business schools in the world. Students entering the program have amongst the highest test scores in the country. Upon graduation, Columbia MBAs are highly sought-after by industry leaders around the world.

Within the past decade, a concerted effort to increase the caliber of research and pedagogy at the School spurred the hiring of more than 90 faculty members -- including Joseph Stiglitz, the 2001 recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics.

Professor Feldberg also was responsible for integrating an international perspective into the School's curriculum, student body, faculty and alumni networks. Within the last three years, he initiated ground-breaking partnerships in the Executive MBA program with London Business School and the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.

Professor Feldberg leaves Columbia Business School in impressive fiscal shape. During his 15 years at the School, Professor Feldberg tapped into the School's network of alumni, recruiters and business leaders to raise more than $325 million which funded a new building, faculty appointments and research centers. Within the past year alone, Professor Feldberg finished the $170 million capital campaign a year early, despite the difficult economic climate. The School's endowment has grown under his leadership from $16 million to nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.

Born in South Africa, Professor Feldberg received his BA from the University of Witwatersrand, his MBA from Columbia Business School in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of Cape Town. With more than 30 years in higher education, Professor Feldberg was appointed dean of the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business in 1972. In 1979, he became director of executive education and associate dean at Northwestern University's J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. In 1981, he was appointed dean of Tulane University's A. B. Freeman School of Business, and in 1986 he became president of the Illinois Institute of Technology. In 2001, The International Center in New York honored Professor Feldberg as a distinguished foreign-born individual who has made a significant contribution to American life.